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Son, You took the words out of my mouth, but spoke them much better than could. Brill!

I also think that these diet-du jour's are also messing with our alimentary canal. Whom ever invented the diets that prescribes eating small meal every hour is rubbish. I'm a big fan of Paleo foods on an Anaconda feeding schedule.

Originally Posted by sachem allison

well as a chef, I see this a lot. Many of the people who are displaying these allergies and sensitivities are not genetically predisposed to digesting these foods. Celiac's disease used to be only a first world disease, It didn't exist in any of the emerging or third world countries as, they started to get exposed to Western diets and exported wheat, they started to develop gluten allergies. The same thing is happening here with soy and corn. Europeans weren't designed to eat corn or soy. Most Asians don't get soy allergies and most Native Americans don't get corn allergies. As for peanut allergies because of cross breeding for better yield, disease and insect resistance we developed strains that when consumed by some folks it can be fatal. The original wild strains of peanuts actually can be consumed by people with peanut allergies because they naturally lack the allergen.
We in the west subsidize our farmers to grow and over abundance of foodstuffs more than we really can ever use. To justify this we add these ingredients to processed foods as flavoring agents, bulk filler, stabilizers and a myriad of other things, that you would never know was made from wheat, corn, soy and so on and so forth. We put it in everything (why do you need high fructose corn syrup in tomato sauce, bread or pasta?) because we gotta put it somewhere and its cheap, filling and highly addictive. All of these things are the perfect firestorm for allergies, intolerance and disease. We feed antibiotics and steroids to livestock because, we feed cattle corn and other grains. We do this because it's cheap, the problem is cattle did not evolve to eat corn or grain they are grazers, they eat grass. Grass fed cattle are healthier for you , they are low in cholesterol, high in omega3 and beta carotene and studies show you are less likely to develop coronary artery disease from eating it. Eating grain fed beef, you are more likely to develop, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, insulin resistance, high cholesterol and dozen other things including hormonal imbalances and antibiotic resistance. ( you don't hear about those reports to often, can't mess with big business).

The other contributing factor to the allergen problem is we are to clean as a society. The development of an efficient sewer system and sanitation system has doomed the western world to allergies. We no longer have a natural resistance to allergens and infections because, we are no longer exposed to these things on a regular basis as our ancestors were. A little bit of crap in the water makes you healthier , too much and Montezuma's revenge. I told my sister when here first Son was born to let him play in the dirt and stick things in his mouth (within reason and he will stay healthy. She put him in a sterile environment and he was sick all the time. The second kid, she followed my advice and he hasn't been sick yet. He is much more robust and filled with vigor than his old brother with the sniffles. Why is it the people who are always sick are the ones with the bottle of hand sanitizer? Ask yourself that question.

My rant is now over and I'm sure it made no sense and I may have wandered off topic. This whole thing is a quick fix. Eat better and roll around in the dirt . Drink a little crap in your water and you'll be fine.

I have a peanut allergy, and when I mention it people normally jump through hoops. It makes me feel like ****, because when I am working in the kitchen and this happens it really throws me out of stride, but I am very grateful for the extra steps they take to ensure that I don't die suffocating on their floor (I carry an epipen 24/7 so this is a slight exaggeration in my case). However when someone comes in and needs something without salt because they have an "allergy" to something that the body needs to survive it really pisses me off, because it really lessens the respect and caution that people have for people with real allergies.

I'm just glad that peanuts aren't a fad allergy yet.

The best explanation that I have heard for the cause of allergies is all of the ridiculously toxic stuff that we put into the environment. Though I do agree that we need to be less sterile to decrease illness and strengthen our immune systems.

Some great thoughts and contributions here. I am with Son and some others on this. I don't have any food allergies, but I am embarrassed that there are a few things I cannot eat. One of them, strangely enough, are avocados. I just have to puke when I eat them in normal quantities. It's not an allergic reaction but my Mom has the same problem and I didn't find out until recently, so this is most likely some physiological thing. And when I eat uni or fish eggs, they come back up faster than I can eat them - but again, no allergy per se. The same thing happens with natto, but that is because that stuff is just nasty...

It would really be interesting to see if there is a measurable correlation between the global spread of genetically modified foods and food-related illnesses. Anybody wanna do a dissertation, I can be your external advisor

This is sort of an old bump (I like saying that), but I read an article recently that the wheat of today has much more wheat germ in it than original heirloom wheat. It has been genetically modified to be 'robust' and there is speculation that the increase in celiac symptoms among the population might have something to do with changing wheat. Also, my neighbor's kid is allergic to corn syrup, and when I told her about the article, she got this excited look on her face and said that she has long suspected that the GMO corn is what her kid is allergic too and not 'normal' corn syrup. Almost all corn 88% is GMO in the US. I must admit that it makes some sense -- or at least makes me a bit suspicious.